Culture

Does Anguilla Have a Culture? Several of the papers read at the recent Association of Caribbean Historians Conference in Paramaribo dealt with the importance of culture in the evolution and development of a post-colonial society. Reading them was an eye-opening experience. They caused me to ask questions about where we in Anguilla are going.

Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory. But, we live in the Twenty-first Century. The Colonial Era is long past. The history is inexorable. We have a colonial Constitution. But, our people are a post-colonial people.

The boast is frequently heard that there are few West Indians so independent-minded as the average Anguillian is. We lack no material want. There is a refrigerator in every room in our house. Each child has its own TV in the bedroom. National Bank and CCB ensured that every home had at least one computer before the year 2000 arrived. Children set off to school with a hundred dollar bill instead of a packed lunch. But, what does it all really mean?

Anguillians, like our brother and sister West Indians, are emerging from a heritage of shattered identities. We have survived the dehumanizing effects of slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Rapid economic development has occurred over the past five or six years. We have begun to stand on our own feet. An invasion of tourists and immigrants from all corners of the earth besets us. Large numbers of persons of other cultures arrive daily on our shores. Non-Anguillian residents, in all likelihood, now outnumber native-born Anguillians. Will Anguillans survive as a people?

All that holds an island people together is a set of symbols, a tiny territory, and an idea that we could be a nation. It takes cultural rootedness to develop a nation. Cultural identity is as equally important as political independence and economic self-sufficiency in the process of nation-building. Cultural development is the bedrock of the creation of a national identity. Do we own what Rex Nettleford has called, “a sense of belonging, a psychic ease, the valuing of our contributions, a space in which to grow and the natural acknowledgment of our worth and dignity as human beings”? Where is the Anguillian dance company? Who are our folklorists? Where is our pantomime? Where have all the actors, singers, dancers, directors and playwrights gone? How many Anguillians are involved in the plastic and fine arts? Other than Carnival once a year, do we honour our popular and traditional arts? Who drives Anguilla’s cultural policy?

Some of us are old enough to remember Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana at the time of independence. What an upsurge of popular creativity we saw then. Are we experiencing the same? Is there any Anguillian working at the preservation and promotion of the arts? What infrastructural framework have we put in place for the management and future development of culture? Who is studying the double impacts of tourism and immigration, the influence of popular US culture, the drug trade, and crime, on our cultural identity? Is there anyone in Anguilla who cares deeply and is dedicated to creating a “civilized” society?

Is it sufficient for our people to have a job, with good money coming in? Is anything permitted, once we can make a good living? Is material satisfaction a complete substitute for intellectual stimulation?

Does Anguilla have a culture? Does any Anguillian even care whether we do or not?